I want to start a cookbook of sorts for my son who's going off to college. My thinking is that if I record basic recipes in a database he can do a search on what he might have on hand in his fridge, for example.

I can input the data/recipes to Excel easily enough, but I'm fairly anal and oriented to visual presentations so I was hoping for something that's attractive and easy to follow.

We both use Macs (if that makes a dif).

Thanks in advance._________________God writes a lot of comedy... the trouble is, he's stuck with so many bad actors who don't know how to play funny. -- Garrison Keillor

Thanks, Heather!- I know. I found a lot of Word templates too. But the ancient recipe management software that I use on my Mac is a database and is soooo versatile. You can use it to halve or double recipes, or search on ingredients, or use recipes to generate shopping lists, or sort by all sorts of criteria like ethnicity or course or description. Perfect for a kid who I want to seduce into cooking a bit by making it super simple. Only thing is, the software I already have is so ancient I have to maintain an ancient operating system to use it.... System 7 when the rest of the Mac world has moved on to System 10!

The link you provided is what I'm looking for (except that I'm hoping for an attractive visual interface). ....only it's a Windows program. That's all I could find last night too.

Oh well, if I have to sit down and mash one I set up myself into something attractive, then that's what I'll have to do. I just don't have that kind of time. And, being computer illiterate, it takes me forever to look up and perform simple tasks.

I sure appreciate your help, tho. _________________God writes a lot of comedy... the trouble is, he's stuck with so many bad actors who don't know how to play funny. -- Garrison Keillor

Hi Rainey
I just want to register how impressed I am at how you're setting your son up for university - oh, if only more mothers had done that with their sons! I think you've just upped his eligibility ten-fold. Here, vivid memories of flatting with guys only able to cook macaroni & cheese for their cooking night every week spring to mind.

I know! We ladies get tagged with pulling that feminine "who, poor little ole me" thing but the truth of the matter is that guys know how to take advantage of it just as much!

Truth is, Iz is a great (if terribly shy) kid with a wonderful heart. So what he can make that smells good could work for him in several ways.

PS My girls know how to change a tire with the jack and tire wrench in their cars and use power tools too. The point being that no one gets out of here not equipped. How they use what they know is up to them. ... and so are the consequences. _________________God writes a lot of comedy... the trouble is, he's stuck with so many bad actors who don't know how to play funny. -- Garrison Keillor

Rainey & Bekbeka: I totally agree about the whole learning to cook thing. My 17 year old son is a great cook: loves to BBQ, is much more adventurous than his older sister. As far as I am concerned cooking is a life skill needed by both genders! As usual, though, often it isn't the fault of the child, it's the fault of the parent(s) who wait on their kids hand & foot. It's always been important to me that my kids will know how to fend for themselves once they leave the nest.

Rainey, my daughter is going to university this fall as well but she is not allowed to cook in her dorm room. A meal plan is mandatory although I do believe there is a small common kitchen on the floor.

Sorry, I don't have an experience with MACs so I can't recommend any templates or software but I'll have a look around for you. What kind of system will your son have?

Heather- When I went to college we couldn't have ANYTHING that heated in our rooms -- including irons. Our rooms were tiny and cramped and there was only one small and ill-equipped kitchen per dorm floor which probably translated to 30 people or more. What your daughter will experience, I take it. Popcorn was about all anyone "cooked" back then. And can you imagine the potential conflict from 30 people sharing ONE refrigerator?!

Things have really changed! Most US dorms are now arranged in apartment-like "suites" that have 2 or 3 shared bedrooms, 1 or 2 bathrooms and small kitchens with a stove/cooktop and fridge. My daughter was lucky and had a dishwasher too. My son, apparently, won't be so lucky -- shame, actually, as I imagine that washing dishes is the LEAST likely activity and really doesn't need to compete with study & social life for their time. But I did see a tiny, counter-top dishwasher yesterday when I was out looking for a replacement dishwasher for my kitchen and I might consider it.

At the school Iz will be attending, their meal plans include 21 meals/week plans and also options that have fewer dining hall meals with cash accounts for eating in campus cafes and purchasing ingredients at a campus co-op grocery. They are even allowed to take meals uncooked from the dining halls to prepare on their own! That's a lot more variety and possibility than I ever had! I would have loved that when I was in college. I think he's lucky to be in a school that has soooo much flexibility. I don't think it's typical at all.

OTOH, kids in Calif's university system no longer can expect to be able to continue to live in dorms for long. My daughter only was allowed one year on campus. My son will only be able to count on two. I guess if the universities know the kids will be living independently off campus, they must acknowledge a certain need for them to be able to cope with independent life.

I think that's all well and good. Living on your own and beginning to make your way in the world is very much part of college "education". When I was young, I lived in one of the first co-ed dorms in the US. At the time, that was a radical idea and quite shocking to many. But what had happened was that a girl was assaulted and killed when the campus was nearly deserted and only a few older students preparing for in-coming freshmen's orientation were in residence. The school quickly assessed that if there had been some male students in that dorm, they would have been a deterrent to the non-student perpetrator who was able to enter the dorm. So they offered co-ed living as an option in some dorms.

At that time it was alternate men's and women's floors. Now, my son (and we don't know what his assignment will be yet) may be in a co-ed suite where only rooms are specifically male or female. But then, life has changed and this is very much more like the world is today.

So, will your daughter be relatively near by? In the province?

We have friends in BC whose daughter was accepted at McGill. They were, of course, delighted. But it was complicated for them. Apart from being so far way from home and going to a climate that would be much harsher than BC, there was the issue of health insurance.

I was surprised to hear how complicated it was going to be. I thought "national health" meant NATIONAL health. Our friends told us it was really a provincial deal and she wouldn't be carried (except by supplementary insurance they'd have to provide) for a year. And that, by the time she had lived on campus for a year and was covered in Ontario, she'd no longer be covered when she returned to BC for vacations and visits. How complicated!

I wonder what letting the chicks leave the nest for college is like in other countries and cultures..._________________God writes a lot of comedy... the trouble is, he's stuck with so many bad actors who don't know how to play funny. -- Garrison Keillor

That National Health Care thing can be a devil. It is partially funded federally and partially provincially but administered by the province. It is supposed to be portable but different provinces treat different issues in different fashions. I could go to a hospital in Saskatchewan the hospital would then bill Ontario, silly really. And then of course McGill is in Montreal and everything is different in Quebec!_________________Vivant Linguae Mortuae!!

And then of course McGill is in Montreal and everything is different in Quebec!

Oops!

She ended up staying in BC anyway. ...after her parents bought the non-refundable airline tix east. Kids!!!_________________God writes a lot of comedy... the trouble is, he's stuck with so many bad actors who don't know how to play funny. -- Garrison Keillor

Hi JustMe & Rainey
as an aside to that post - recently my brother's partner told me that my mother had 'spoiled' brother my brother - not being that my mother had waited on him hand and foot, but that she had raised him to be such a fabulous, competent, creative cook that intimidated other woman wanting to cook for him (namely his partner)! I laughed and told her to sit back and enjoy what many women would love to have. Luckily people who haven't been taught early on can learn to love cooking later in life - thankfully for me, who enjoys cooking but also likes to share the load.

David: yes, everything is different in Quebec (and I am allowed to say that because I ws born there!)

Bekbeka: after having made my comments I have to admit that my mother never taught me how to cook, not so much because she waited on me hand & foot but that she was a very impatient teacher. So my skills are basically self taught (and I think I do okay). My husband loves to cook (so did my father) so he has been a great inspiration for my son. But there are those times when I have to kick my husband out of the kitchen...berrating him to let me do my own thing.

Rainey: my daughter is going to York University in the north end of Toronto so it is really only about a 45-60 minute drive away but the big city is very different than what's she used to. The university does offer the sort of rooms/suites that you mentioned but they are not available for first year students. They are not allowed a kettle or anything in their rooms although they are allowed a small fridge. She could live on bagels & cream cheese & chicken fingers that one (she can't belong to me ) so I'm sure she'll do fine. Their meal plan is done by dollar value: they have a card like a debit card that goes against their food account.There's a large mall that offers all the fast food you could want! I think there's also a standard cafeteria but we didn't see it. All the buildings are co-op, I believe. There are 2 separate rooms in her "room" and her room mate will be female but there will be guys on the same floor. It doesn't phase her at all: it's just the way it is now.

First year students with a certain grade average are guaranteed a spot in residence if they apply; no such guarantee for future years. Unfortunately York isn't in the best neighbourhood in the city so I would be a little hesitant having her live off campus and commuting but we'll cross that bridge when we come to it._________________Life is too short to drink cheap wine.

[quote="Rainey"]Anybody got a good template for recording recipes in Excel?

We both use Macs (if that makes a dif).

I realize this is long past the point of this post being active, but I'm also a Mac user and I'm wondering what, if anything, you finally ended up doing. And I'm wondering what database software you were using in System 7.

Thanks,

Ray Gossen_________________I have forced myself to contradict myself
in order to avoid conforming to my own taste.
- Marcel Duchamp

Hi Ray- I used Mangia when I had System 7. I'm using MacGourmet now and I'm very happy with it. Want a link?

What do you do? ...er... That's supposed to mean "how do you manage your recipes?" Didn't mean to grill you by way of an introduction. _________________God writes a lot of comedy... the trouble is, he's stuck with so many bad actors who don't know how to play funny. -- Garrison Keillor